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Tag: forcallat

Wine bars and restaurants

Natural wine in Murcia

La Gracia is a small and cozy natural wine bar that opened in 2020, when the pandemic was at its height. It’s found in Murcia capital, Spain, in one of the narrow streets behind the city hall and the cathedral in the Santa Eulalia district. They work with artisan producers of wine, cheese and also beer and other products. The owners are Esperanza Pérez Andreo and Cristina Ramos Berna. They have strong ties with local and regional producers from whom they buy directly.

I was there twice at the end of the year, including New Year’s Eve. We sat on the “terrace” (i.e. the plaza behind the first street) near midnight, and then inside the bar around noon. We chose from the cold and the warm tapas menues, and from the by-the-glass wine selection, that counts on around 30 references.

Esperanza Pérez, responsible for the wine selection

Among the small dishes we chose was a “cured” cheese selection. The first one was a young and fresh, but oh so tasty, cheese from Cartagena, then a 3-4 months cured goat’s cheese soaked in red wine, then a 9 months cured cheese from San Javier called ‘El Abuelo’ (the grandfather) and finally a wonderfully complex cheese from a mountain between Cartagena and Mazarrón. The watermelon marmelade was from coastal San Javier.

The wine list contains established and new natural wine stars from Murcia and elsewhere in Spain. We started with Las Madres 2020 (Punta de Flecha), a light skin-contact white from the Madrid area. The grape is malvar, and like many other wines from that variety it is low on acidity but rather textured. Amber coloured and slightly fizzy, it had a nice aroma of flowers and orange peel.

Las Madres with chicken brioche

Viña Enebro is rather well-known in Spanish natural wine circles, and you can read about a visit in Bullas here. El Yesar 2020 is a white wine made from the red grape forcallat. Hence it has a little blush of red. It’s round and tasty, and the aroma includes traces of citrus (clementine) and herbs.

At the second day I asked for whatever white wine and was served Doble Plaer 2020 from Vinyes Singulars (with collaboration from Toni Osorio) It turned to be a wonderful wine with a phenomenal acidity, almost electric. It has a good body too. Light orange in colour, and somewhat cloudy, with an aroma of citrus peel (lemon) and flowers over black tea. Long aftertaste where the citric notes linger. The grapes are malvasía de Sitges and parellada.

The two first reds were revelations from the Murcia region. Negrete 2021 from Negrete Blue is a monastrell/garnacha tintorera from no less than 1.373 meters of altitude in the Bullas denomination. It was a fresh and juicy, berry-dominated, young wine, with blackberry and blueberry in front.

Tinaha 2020 comes from the bodega of the same name. It’s found between Molino de Segura and Jumilla to the north of the regional capital. As the name implies they believe in ageing in clay (tinajas). The varieties are a local field blend, and so monastrell should be among the suspects. The wine had red berry notes, but was more dominated by a clay minerality with flowers, and had a juicy taste with a long aftertaste, and especially for the region, good acidity.

We tasted two reds from Castilla. Felipe el Caminero 2021 (Inma Badillo) is a fresh tempranillo/ juan garcía/bruñal blend from Arribes del Duero, close to the Portuguese border (provinces Zamora and Salamanca). It’s a pure, very juicy and fruity wine with lots of berry character. La Payana 2020 (Cható Gañán) is completely different. Made from garnacha on granite soil in the Sierra de Gredos, it has a more serious air to it. It has some of the etheral character often associated with the Gredos garnachas, and some of the minerality behind the red fruits. The oak shows delicately on the palate.

Since I was back on New Year’s Eve I took the opportunity to round off with a sparkling wine. The choice fell on En Moviment A 2020 (Bàrbara Forés) from Terra Alta, Catalunya, made from the local morenillo grape. The sparkling rosé smells of peach and grapefruit. There is an acidic attack in the mouth, the wine is slim in the middle, but the citrus acidity strikes back and gives it a lift towards the end.

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Wine of the Week

Fruity Forcallà from Fontanars

The forcallà grape (or forcayat, officially forcallat) originates from Castilla-La Mancha, but nowadays most of it is found in Valencia and Murcia. (Here I have mentioned another, by the way.) The grape was common in the Levante before phylloxera. But when the farmers replanted after the plague it was largely replaced by monastrell, because it had more colour and alcohol. However, in this Mediterranean climate with high summer temperatures forcallat’s lower alcohol is now seen as a virtue, with its potential to give light, elegant and floral red wines.

Rafael Cambra is located in Fontanars dels Alforins, Valencia, where he works to recover grapes and styles. He believes in minimal intervention, and the wine is certified organic. This forcallat is from a single pie franco (ungrafted) vineyard more than fifty years old, on sandy soils. Fermentation took place with indigenous yeast in 2,000-litre stainless steel tanks with 10% stems and gentle pumping-over. Ageing for eight months in used French barrels of five hundred liters, then concrete for three months.

La Forcallà de Antonia 2020 (R. Cambra)

Cherry red. Aroma of red and dark fruits (raspberry, dark cherry), plums, spice, pepper. Full in the mouth, soft tannins, intense flavours and fruit all the way.

Price: Medium

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Articles

Monastrell trip round-up

I had been travelling in the stronghold of the monastrell grape for almost a week. Here are a few tales about a few producers that didn’t receive an article for themselves this time, even if they deserve so.

I had met Juan Pascual López of Viña Enebro at a fair, and I have tasted his wines at the natural wine bar Solo de Uva in Madrid, and elsewhere. Enebro refers to a very special tree that grows in his vineyard in the Bullas wine area, in the municipality of Cehegín.

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On the property you find almonds and olives, and in the vineyards there are some 80+ % monastrell. The soils are predominantly sandy clay with a high content of limestone, more saline near the river.

Juan Pascual belongs to the PVN group (Productores de Vinos Naturales), which means no additives (read: not even a milligram of sulphur). No more than 13-14.000 bottles are made each year. He tells that he sees himself concentrating more and more on young wines, marching with the times, in other words.

I have tasted and covered his wines on several ocations. So this time we didn’t taste any bottled wines, we just drove through the vineyards, had some samples and discussed wine and politics.

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The first sample was a forcallat, a local, nearly extinct, productive and quite mellow variety that is going to be a “blanco de negros” (not completely true, even if it’s blended with a small proportion of monastrell, as this particular grape is white).

Next was a monastrell that will probably be a rosé (light, aromatic, rounded), then a carbonic maceration red (light, fresh and yes: carbonic) and a much more powerful and tannin-structured wine. All these monastrell 100%, all 2016.

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We also sampled some “older” vintages, between 2015 and ’13. Juan Pascual told that monastrell loses colour quite fast, but the tannins last longer, which was evident from these wines. I have never thought about this before, but it’s something to explore at the earliest convenience.

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Juan’s mother did all the paintings, including the still life

When I have mentioned that we also tasted a sparkling wine and a 2013 dessert wine -grapes dried some 40 days, still fermenting- I think I have told the tale about this short visit.

 

Tercia de Ulea was visited en route, and proprietor Diego Ruíz de Assin was available on the phone, but not in person. No worries, as Ildefonso was there when I showed up one day before the appointment, just to see if it was possible (to be able to visit my mother that had been brought to the hospital of Benidorm – I think this is most relevant information for you, dear reader).

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Anyway, the bodega has a small selection of barrels in sizes from 128 liters up to 2.500, and at different ages. The list of barrels tells that the one 128 liter barrel contains “shyrac”. The bodega is in Moratalla, in the western end of Bullas, while the vineyards lie towards Benizar by the border with Albacete and Los Charcos, a little east from the winery.

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Ildefonso took me through a few wines. We are always talking about minimal sulphur additions. 20-25 mg/L maybe, and never more than 40 mg total sulphur. The wine growing is organic, and there is as tittle intervention as possible.

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Rebeldía 2016, mainly monastrell, was a light and fruitdriven rosé (strawberry, citric notes) round in the mouth with adecuate acidity. A interesting wine was the Adivina 2016, a semi-dulce (half-sweet) made from tempranillo and cabernet. Light rosé colour in the direction of salmon, an evident apricot component in the aroma, and the sweetness surpisingly balanced by the concentration of the fruit.

Rambla 2015 was the most direct monastrell expression (almost 100% monastrell), unoaked, a dark, fruity (cherries), lightly spicy and structured red. Botial Roble 2015 made from monastrell and syrah in equal parts and a little cabernet, was fuller-bodied and still with good fruit.

 

On the way back to Andalucía I stopped just outside Villena in the Alicante province, where Bodega la Encina is making highly original natural wines, with elements of biodynamic practise and without additions of any sort. They work the land according to the deepest respect of the land and the traditions. No pesticides nor chemicals are used. Nor do they clarify the wines.

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I came across one of the wines at a seaside restaurant in the Cádiz province (the Taberna de el Campero) and I have been thinking of a visit ever since.

Cero 2016 was a fabulous, dark, berryfruited wine. I highlighted this one soon after my visit. (Look here.)

Among the best were also a Merlot 2016, with dark fruits, plums and herbs, with evident tannins and adecuate acidity, – and the Forcallat 2016, dark with blueish rim, fruit-driven aroma (blueberry, blood-orange, white flowers) and young, fine tannins.

IMG_4108 José María Espí

La Encina was established in 2006 to fulfill his dream making the kind of wine that he remembers from his childhood, José María explains. At that time he liked to be with his father in a cellar of Ontinyent, after the war, where he learned to make natural wines. Some new techniques, and knowledge, were learned when he started his new venture, and he attended several courses. A curiosity maybe more than a technique as such, is that they use classical music or jazz as background music for the fermentation.

In sum these are wonderful wines for today, full of individuality and character, but with a strong tie to the past.

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